The exhausting plenitude of loosely connected detail in "Gravity s Rainbow "makes it a favorite of postmodern critics, who claim it describes a modern, random, unknowable universe. Hume expands the possibilities as she discloses a mythic structure that underlies Pynchon s work and provides easier access to his world. Myth turns chaos into cosmos, Hume explains, describing how the profuse detail of Pynchon s book allows for the creation of a world humankind shapes out of chaos by means of ritual and myth. . . a set of interlocking stories. . . that] fit into a narrative sequence or mythology that conveys, supports, and challenges cultural values. Pynchon s mythology is not rigidly consistent, Hume notes, but several strands of mythological action. . . serve a stabilizing function in this chaotic book. Pynchon creates his own unheroic hero to show the way for making sense of the fragmented experience of life in the postmodern world."